Garmin Asus Nuvifone M10 review

Will fusing smartphones with sat navs make a compelling handset?

The definitive Garmin Asus Nuvifone M10 review
The definitive Garmin Asus Nuvifone M10 review

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With both Wi-Fi and HSDPA to 7.2Mbps download (and 384Kbps upload), the Garmin Asus Nüvifone M10 is capable of speedy internet access.

It's something of a shame that web access relies on Pocket Internet Explorer. We'd have preferred to see Opera pre-installed too, though there's nothing to stop you downloading that if you want to.

When you fire up IE, you're dropped into a search utility, which offers you the choice of searching the web, searching Wikipedia or, rather narcissistically, going to the Garmin Asus home page.

Web pages are rendered well, with full-screen views showing plenty of information thanks to that 3.5-inch 480 x 800 pixel screen. The acceleromter is very sensitive at detecting when you flick the handset round and at reorienting itself for wide or tall viewing.

Garmin asus nuvifone m10

Garmin asus nuvifone m10

Web browsing is another area where the stylus is often called into play, though, as it can be tricky to tap at links with a fingertip.

Zooming in and of web pages is a matter of hitting a small round menu icon at the bottom-right of the screen then using an on-screen zoom bar. It's nowhere near as easy or quick as pinch to zoom, but without a capacitive screen, we're stuck with it.

Like so many of its type, it zooms into the centre of the screen so you have to pan around post-zoom to see what you need to.

Garmin asus nuvifone m10

Text does not 'reflow' like on the HTC Desire, so if you zoom in too far you'll need to do a fair amount of panning to actually read a web page.

Garmin asus nuvifone m10